Tenneson Woolf

Consulting & Training
(Methodologies & Frameworks)

All of my work utilizes participative leadership methods, whether with small teams or large organizations, to help access more of the wisdom already present in a group, and, to help groups be smarter together. I have 20+ years applied experience in numerous settings with The Circle Way, Open Space Technology, The World Cafe and other forms nuanced to particular circumstance. More on Methods.

Behind methods are always frameworks and world views that amplify impact and purpose. Learned and practiced with colleagues over years, I count on several well-trusted orientations. “Two Loops,” “Cynefin,” “The Chaordic Path,” “Divergence & Convergence,” “Visual Harvesting,” “Chaordic Stepping Stones,” “Hobbit Tools,” “Asking Powerful Questions,” and “The Four Fold Path.” I also love creating and evolving new frameworks, both to bring to groups, and to create with them. More on Frameworks.

Coaching and Guiding

Much of my coaching happens online utilizing Zoom for video connection. Sessions are typically 60 minutes for individuals and 90 minutes for teams. I utilize a process of inquiry that integrates external observation with internal relevance, and vice versa. And that explores beneath the surface of relevance for the immediate moment that is connected to the longer arc. My coaching is very much about creating an environment to help people and groups deeply ground the “what,” the “why,” and the “how” of their work. My coaching is a commitment to both the detail of participative design needs, and, the depth of personal awakeness and leadership inquiry. It is very much about creating spaciousness and expansion in what can so often be compressed and contracted.

Reflection & Writing

It’s typically between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. when I most often wake, whether to morning sunlight or remaining darkness of night. First, when able, I journal privately to catch morning insights that have grown naturally through night sleep. Sometimes dreams. Second, even if just for five minutes, but more typically 20, mediation. My body, my mind, and my heart need to know this spaciousness, particularly in the busiest of times. I continue to learn that I can’t take people to spaciousness in their work if I don’t know it in me. Third, writing. Because that’s how I particularly find more of the inner that helps make sense of the outer. It’s practice.

I post insights on my daily blog, Human to Human. It’s journalling and learning in public, Monday through Thursday, in which I post current learnings (taking sporadic weeks off to write longer pieces or to rest). Posts are 300-500 words, often with photos, intended to be read in five minutes and inspire reflection, individually and communally, on varied aspects of participative leadership practices, insights, and human to human depth. You can signup to received new posts by email.

I also enjoy writing articles, thought papers, poems and the reflection that is participating in conversational podcasts. More on My Articles & Newsletters. More on My Podcasts and Videos. More on My Poems.

In June 2022 I published my second collection of poetry, Most Mornings. This collection offers verse to both my work and to my communal and solo living. As I describe in the Introduction, “This collection of poems comes from some of my sense-making that so often happens in the morning, nurtured by overnight sleep. These poems sample practices. They sample learnings. They sample insights and discoveries. They sample dilemmas and concerns. They range from simple and clear appreciations to more complex and murky wonderings about how to be in the world of these times. I offer these verses to invite essences to lead, as poetry often does, and to invite discovery of what can only live between the lines.

Previously (March 2020) I published A Cadence of Despair: Poems and Reflections on Heartbreak, Loss and Renewal. This isn’t a book about facilitation. Rather, it is a book about coming into relationship with despair, including some of my experience with descent and ascent. It’s highly personal material that maps the personal to the universal.

The Basics: What I Do

It’s meeting design and facilitation. It’s strategic visioning. It’s participative leadership. It’s workshops to multi-day retreats. It’s coaching individuals and teams. Helping us be smarter together. More on The Basics.

The Subtle: Underneath The Basics

The subtle here is a reference to what is underneath. It is true to me that there are some basics. Maps. Methodologies. Models. These are very important. And, if I did not speak about the subtle, I would not be being totally honest. I often use the language of hosting. Or convening. Underneath that, what I believe we are really hosting and cultivating when working with groups is consciousness, wellness, wholeness, and resonance. More on The Subtle.

Theory

“Make sure that whatever processes you choose to use or create comes from a deliberate underlaying theory of change.”  This was the advice offered to me from two important early mentors, Margaret Wheatley and Myron Kellner Rogers. It was a commentary on some of what we were seeing group facilitators do that sometimes felt confusing to participants. Since then, it has always felt important to me to connect facilitation to theory. Not so much extensive detail. But as root, or bedrock, to clarify criteria for choosing what to do and what not to do. Theory is the story that helps make sense of the past, and, discern what is useful now and into the future. I often speak of the three theory bases that inspire my work. 1) Living Systems — that organizations are living systems. 2) Self-Organization — that groups of people experience “order for free” when centered in clear values. 3) Emergence — that insight and change happens from what arises when a system encounters itself. More on Theory.

Client List

I have so enjoyed working with such a range of groups and systems over the last 25 years. From faith community councils to university-wide senior leadership. From labor unions to corporate leadership teams. From health care practitioners to school teachers. In contexts ranging from coaching explorations to meetings to retreats to large conference redesign. Client List.

Partners

I have made it policy to most often work in partnership. The work is so much more than mechanical check lists from the front of the room. I’ve worked with really fantastic people all of my life. People I trust. From 2017-2022 this was most often with Quanita Roberson, with whom I co-created a 16-month cohort program, Fire & Water Leadership & Rite of Passage, QT Retreats, Circle Workshops, and a bunch of virtual and in-person client / community work. Previously, it was Amanda Fenton, with whom I hosted retreats, intensives, online classes, and advanced practicums for The Circle Way. Chris Corrigan and Caitlin Frost, with whom I continue to host a university-wide participative leadership program. Roq Gareau, who remains one of the most thoughtful and insightful people that I know. Additional Colleagues List.

Kind Words

I’m grateful for kind words offered, appreciations from things very personal to institutional. A few of them are here.

The first step on the path is always a conversation. To meet by phone or video conference. To hear or share a bit of the story about hopes and challenges, purpose and possibility. To start with wonder and some skilled wander.

Email

tenneson@tennesonwoolf.com

Phone

801 376 2213

Mail

Tenneson Woolf
PO Box 1271
Pleasant Grove, Utah 84062